Fundraiser

Some of the proceeds from a previously scheduled girls volleyball fundraiser will be diverted to help the Lima family defray funeral and burial expenses. The fundraiser is being held Tuesday night, July 28, at the Poquito Mas restaurant in Rolling Hills Plaza, 2625 Pacific Coast Highway, in Torrance from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Mention Narbonne High School when you order.

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A 17-year-old Torrance boy who was swept underwater by powerful surf in Manhattan Beach over the weekend died at 6:15 p.m. Monday, officials said today.

Dexter Lima, of Torrance, was swimming near the pier with his cousin when a wave knocked them under at about 5:45 p.m. Sunday. The boy’s cousin quickly surfaced but he did not, and it took rescuers more than 20 minutes to find him near the end of the pier, officials said.

The boy was not breathing and did not have a pulse when he was brought to shore, rescuers said. He was taken to Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in grave condition.

There have been thousands of ocean rescues this year but only one drowning in Los Angeles County, which happened in Malibu last month.

This past weekend was the busiest so far this year for local lifeguards because of the high surf, said Phil Topar, assistant chief for Los Angeles County Fire Department’s lifeguard division.

Countywide, lifeguards rescued 1,399 people on those days, Topar said. In the South Bay, 480 people – 172 in Manhattan Beach – were pulled from the ocean in distress. About 90 percent of these incidents involved rip currents.

Capt. Greg Lee of the Los Angeles County Fire Department Lifeguard Division said waves reached 12 feet high in Manhattan Beach over the weekend.

“The waves were scraping the bottom of the pier,” Lee said. “You could see it and feel it because it was rumbling. You could feel the power of the waves.”

South-facing beaches such as Malibu and Huntington Beach were hit hardest by the high surf over the weekend, but some local beaches also were pounded by high waves. In the South Bay, Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach were largely protected from the wind-generated swells by the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Catalina Island, Lee said.

Though the waters have calmed down significantly, Lee said he expects the surf to be high for the rest of the month. He asked swimmers to be cautious.

“Talk to the lifeguard and try not to overestimate your swimming abilities,” he said. “If you’re not water-oriented, stay in around waist-deep water.”

Swimmers can get out of rip currents – violent, foamy water accompanied by waves – by swimming parallel to the shore, rather than panicking and swimming against the current, he said.

Sandy Mazza is a freelancer. She previously worked for Southern California News Group as a city reporter covering Carson and Hawthorne and specializing in features about Los Angeles' growing Silicon Beach tech, bioscience, and aerospace sectors.